It’s been more than two and half months since we have had a look at campaign financial reports for candidates running for office in 2023. The main focus of the updated information matches the obvious political activity in Erie County this year. The election for Erie County Executive involves the greatest amount of money and the most public attention.
A previous post noted the small number of actual Democratic/Republican challenges going on in the County. Even where there are such races, many are not really competitive.
All candidates for office in New York State this year were required to file financial reports with the state Board of Elections by October 6. This post reports on the county executive candidates as well as the candidates for town supervisor in the county’s largest towns where such elections are being conducted in 2023. Here is the summary:
Erie County Executive
- Incumbent and Democratic/Working Families candidate Mark Poloncarz has raised $200,129 since the July filing. He has spent $449,161 and had $378,848 remaining in his treasury as of October 2nd.
- Republican/Conservative candidate Crissy Casilio raised $45,022 in the most recent reporting period. She spent $26,051 and had $130,236 remaining as of October 2nd.
Cheektowaga Town Supervisor
- Current Board member and Democratic/Working Families candidate Brian Nowak: raised $14,159. He spent $8,527 and had $37,994 remaining.
- Current Board member and Republican/Conservative candidate Michael Jasinski raised $4,403. He spent $2,780 and had $3,594 remaining.
Tonawanda Town Supervisor
- Incumbent Supervisor and Democratic/Conservative candidate Joe Emminger raised nothing. He spent $2,309 and had $6,631 remaining.
- Republican candidate Peter Hojczyk had no financial report on record with the state Board of Elections as of the morning of October 10, 2023.
West Seneca Town Supervisor
- Democratic/Working Families candidate Chris Rusin: raised $5,540. He spent $1,723 and had $12,623 remaining.
- Incumbent Supervisor and Republican/Conservative candidate Gary Dickson raised $27,168. He spent $20,366 and had $41,162 remaining.
The next campaign financial reports are due on October 27th.
The county executive campaign
Both candidates are now up with TV commercials. Poloncarz’s ads have been on the air since shortly after Labor Day. He has been a running a positive bio spot highlighting his work as county executive and what he wants to do in a new term. He also has an ad about his opponent’s now-deleted Twitter posts which discussed a variety of conspiracy theory subjects. Both ads run 30 seconds. The financial report indicates that $277,639 has been spent on the ads thus far.
Casilio’s 15 second ads started running last week. She continues her attacks on Poloncarz concerning the asylum seekers who have been sent to Erie County by New York City as well as personal conduct issues she has previously discussed. There is no reporting about payment for the ads in this current filing. The largest expense listed is $8,809 for signs.
As noted above, going forward with four weeks until Election Day Poloncarz has substantially more resources to support his media advertising and upcoming mailings than does Casilio. A successful campaign, however, is more than just TV ads and mailers.
Seven and a half months into this election, Casilio has not demonstrated any knowledge or understanding of what county government does. Even on her main issue concerning the asylum seekers, her response to Ch. 2 when asked about her plan for managing the issue was vague: “it is hard to imagine what I would do in the situation.”
Casilio criticized the 2024 budget that Poloncarz submitted and she proposed to cut the county property tax levy by nine percent, which would amount to approximately $29 million. She has so far not indicated what county programs she would cut to balance out a $29 million reduction in tax revenues.
There are debates coming up between Casilio and Poloncarz: one sponsored by St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute on October 19th; and another by WIVB-TV on October 24th. The League of Women Voters is also running two candidate forums, one in East Aurora on October 17th and the other in Amherst on October 26th. The League’s forums have invited the candidates for county executive as well as candidates for the County Legislature and town offices. It has a “no empty chair policy” which requires that at least two candidates in a race must be present to participate in the forum.
Poloncarz is obviously prepared to discuss his work and plans for Erie County government. Perhaps the debates will highlight the same for Casilio.
Early voting begins in less than three weeks, on October 28th.
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